Monday, March 21, 2011

One more hymn: Come Thou Fount

Buddy Greene and Jeff Taylor

I'll shift gears in a few minutes, but "Power in the Blood" got me to thinking about those old hymns and favorite performances, so here's Buddy Greene (vocal, guitar and harmonica) with Jeff Taylor (concertina and pipes) on "Come Thou Fount," also a Gaither Homecoming clip.

This is the best performance I know of one of the most elegant hymns I know, beautifully phrased by Robert Robinson in 1757, when he was just 22, and elegantly set on this side of the Atlantic to the American folk tune "Nettleton."

Robinson, an English dissident of considerable note, had been affiliated with the Baptists but wrote these words just after converting to Methodism. Baptists out there thinking of becoming Methodists in hope of inspiration should know, however, that Robinson moved rapidly into the Congregational fold, then came home to the Baptists where he spent the remainder of his life.

Greene and Taylor also performed "Shall We Gather at the River" beautifully during this Gaither show, but "Come Thou Fount" is enough for this time.

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About that danged blogger

1. Southern Iowan. Who can measure the importance of place? 2. Queer, cranky and getting older. 3. Vietnam veteran. 4. Certified skeptic: Secular humanist with a Lutheran and Unitarian Universalist past and Episcopalian leanings. My life, as does everyone else's, involves living contradictions with as much grace as possible.